“Very God of Very God: His
Divine Attributes”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. During the Epiphany season, we are focusing on the doctrine of the DIVINITY
of Christ, as we just confessed in the Nicene Creed: “The only-begotten Son of
God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very
God of very God.” You may not realize that the second verse of the favorite Christmas carol “Oh Come, All Ye Faithful” is actually a paraphrase of this portion of the
Nicene Creed, a beautiful testimony in song of our faith in the true divinity of
Christ: “Highest, most holy, Light of Light eternal, born of a Virgin, a mortal
he comes; Son of the Father now in flesh appearing! Oh come,
let us adore him, Christ the Lord!” This doctrine of Christ’s divinity is based on the testimony of the sacred
Scriptures, in does divine WORKS, which he is given divine NAMES, possesses
divine ATTRIBUTES, and has divine GLORY. We began this sermon series on the first Sunday in February, by considering
his divine WORKS, especially the healings and other miracles he performed during
his earthly ministry. As the Gospel Reading for the Second
Sunday after the Epiphany says, after recounting his turning water into wine:
“This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He
thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.” Last Sunday we continued with his divine NAMES, as his first disciples
declare in today’s Gospel Reading: “‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the
Christ) . . . ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’”
The Gospel Readings for the First and Last Sundays after the Epiphany are like
bookends for the beginning and ending of this season, for both record the
Father’s voice from heaven declaring at the Baptism and Transfiguration of Our
Lord: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” In today’s Gospel Reading, when Jesus meets Nathanael he says to him, “Here
is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.” “How do
you know me?” Nathanael asks. Jesus answers, “I saw you while
you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” An “attribute” is a characteristic a person has, and a divine attribute is a
characteristic which only God could have. From this encounter
with Jesus, Nathanael recognizes one of Jesus’ DIVINE attributes, OMNISCIENCE,
knowing all things. “Rabbi,” Nathanael declares, “you are the
Son of God; you are the King of Israel.” “You believe because
I told you I saw you under the fig tree?” Jesus says. “You
shall see greater things than that!” In addition to the divine attribute of OMNISCIENCE, which we see in this
text, Scripture testifies that Jesus has other characteristics only God could
have, other divine attributes. He is PERFECTLY HOLY; ETERNAL;
UNCHANGEABLE; OMNIPOTENT, or all-powerful; and OMNIPRESENT, present everywhere.
Because these are all attributes that only God can possess, with
Nathanael we confess that since Jesus possesses such divine attributes, it means
he IS, “Very God of Very God.” Hebrews says that Jesus was, “tempted in every way, just as we are—yet
without sin.” And the Apostle John writes, “You know that he
appeared to take away our sins. And in him is no sin.” What does it mean for you that Jesus is PERFECTLY HOLY?
His perfect holiness is in sharp contrast to our own sinfulness, for which we
all deserve God’s wrath and punishment. The real message of
the Christian Gospel is that all the wrath and punishment we deserve on account
of our sin God poured out, not upon us, but instead upon his own Son.
As Peter says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross.”
Paul puts it this way in today’s Epistle Reading, “He has rescued us from
the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in
whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” In him YOU
have “redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” For he bore all
YOUR sins in his body on the cross. “You know that he
appeared to take away our sins. And in him is no sin.” What does it mean for you that Jesus is PERFECTLY HOLY? At
the beginning of today’s Gospel Reading, John the Baptizer points to Jesus and
declares, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
In the Old Testament sacrificial system the main sacrifice was lambs,
which were slaughtered as a sacrifice for sin. All those
sacrifices of the Old Testament were actually picture prophecies, pointing
forward to the ultimate sacrifice which was to come, the ultimate Lamb of God. When John declares, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the
world!” he means that Jesus is the culmination and fulfillment of all those Old
Testament sacrifices, who by his death takes away the sins of the whole world. The book of Leviticus commanded of those animal sacrifices, “Do not bring
anything with a defect, because it will not be accepted on your behalf. . .
it must be without defect or blemish to be acceptable.”
The same requirement for perfection was also true of the Lamb of God.
For, this Old Testament requirement that their sacrificial animals be
perfect was likewise a picture prophecy, pointing forward to the Messiah, the
Savior, the perfect Son of God. “It must be without defect or
blemish to be acceptable.” If Jesus had not been perfectly
holy, his death would not have been an acceptable sacrifice.
Because he is divine, and therefore perfectly holy, he is worthy by his
sacrifice to pay for our sins. Peter puts it this way, “You
were redeemed . . . with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or
defect.” What does it mean for you that Jesus is PERFECTLY HOLY?
His perfect holiness is Good News for YOU! For he is the
perfect sacrifice, worthy to pay for your sins. “Behold, the
Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” “You know
that he appeared to take away our sins. And in him is no sin.” “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” Jesus says, “the First and the Last, the
Beginning and the End . . . who is, and who was, and who is to come, the
Almighty.” He is the eternal God, as Paul says in today’s
Epistle Reading from Colossians, “For by him all things were created . . .
He is before all things.” According to these and other Scriptures, Jesus is ETERNAL, his divine nature
existing from eternity. That is an attribute that only GOD could have, as Psalm
90 says, “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the
world, from everlasting, to everlasting, you are God.” Using
the title “The Word” for Jesus’ divine nature, the opening verses of the Gospel
of John put it this way: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. Through him all things were made;
without him nothing was made that has been made.” “Incarnation” is a Latin word that literally means, “to become flesh.”
John tells us that before his incarnation, “the Word,” the Son of God,
the second Person of the Trinity, existed from eternity in his divine nature
only. John’s Gospel continues, “And the Word became flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of
the Father, full of grace and truth.” At a specific point in time the second Person of the Trinity also took on a
human nature, as Paul says in 1st Timothy, “Beyond all question, the mystery of
godliness is great: God appeared in a body.” Scripture
pinpoints for us the exact moment when his incarnation occurred: “The angel said
to Mary, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High
will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be
called the Son of God’ . . . ‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary
answered. ‘Let it be to me as you have said.’” When at that moment the second Person of the Trinity became man, he did not
lose or alter his divinity. The Athanasian Creed puts it this
way: “It is necessary for everlasting salvation that we also believe faithfully
the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right faith
is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is
God and man . . . not by conversion of the Godhead into
flesh, but by taking the manhood into God.” That is why Hebrews says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever.” His divine nature was not lost or changed when he
became a man. And, through union with the divine, his human
nature also has the divine characteristic of being UNCHANGEABLE. What does it mean for you that Jesus is ETERNAL and UNCHANGEABLE?
ALL OTHER RELIGIONS believe in a capricious, unpredictable god.
Abraham Sarker was born and raised a devout Muslim in Bangladesh, and was
training to be an imam when he converted to Christianity. He
writes: “As a devout Muslim, I would have died for my religion. . .
Yet deep inside of me, I feared the capricious nature of Allah, as
described in the Koran. I knew that no one could know whether
he would go to heaven. . . Allah was unpredictable, and one
could only hope that he or she would find favor with the Almighty. . .
Yet even the most exemplary Muslim cannot be assured of his salvation. .
. I might have a chance of going to heaven, but I could never
be sure of Allah’s will for me until the day of judgment.” You can’t ever be sure how such a capricious, unpredictable god feels toward
you. Because at any time, he might just arbitrarily change
his mind, and turn against you. But, when Jesus says “Your
sins are all forgiven,” he means it FOREVER. Because Jesus is
ETERNAL and UNCHANGEABLE, your faith is built on an eternal, unchangeable
foundation. “For I am the Lord,” he says in Malachi, “I do
not change.” “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever.” Because he is UNCHANGEABLE, his promise to you of eternal life is also
UNCHANGEABLE. Because he is “the same yesterday, today, and
forever,” his love and forgiveness for you is the same, yesterday, today, and
forever! Before he ascended into heaven Jesus declared, “ALL POWER in heaven and on
earth has been given to me. . . and lo, I am WITH YOU ALWAYS.” What does it mean for you that Jesus is OMNIPOTENT, all-powerful, and
OMNIPRESENT, present everywhere? Paul puts it this way in
Romans: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor
demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor
depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the
love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” No matter what you may be facing, your OMNIPRESENT and OMNIPOTENT Savior is
WITH YOU ALWAYS with his mighty POWER. Hebrews puts it this
way: “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’
So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be
afraid.’” Finally, the divine attribute we started with, Jesus’ OMNISCIENCE, as
displayed in today’s Gospel Reading. What does it mean for
you that Jesus is OMNISCIENT? As I was sitting snug in my study last week watching the storm outside while
writing this sermon, it reminded me of 15 years ago when we lived in South
Dakota, and on a visit to Kansas at Christmastime we got caught driving at night
in a blizzard. We only had about 15 miles to go, but it was
very nerve-wracking. I was really driving blind.
I couldn’t see the lines or where the road ended and the ditch began.
Is that what your life seems like sometimes: driving blind through a
blizzard? But, Jesus promises HE is leading and guiding you,
and he knows the way, for, as Peter once said to him, “Lord, you know all
things.” “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus says. “Trust
in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many
rooms. . . I am going there to prepare a place for you. . .
I will come and take you to be with me.” That night we
made it safely to my mother’s house, and Jesus promises he will lead you safely
to your Father’s house. Jesus’ divine attributes are not just some abstract theological concept.
They are your assurance that he is your divine Savior and Lord, “Very God
of Very God.” Amen. Return to Top | Return to Sermons | Home | Email Church Office
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